Tuesday, 25 November 2014

DIY GUITAR PEDAL BOARD

Graeme has a lot of guitar pedals. It used to drive me nuts when we lived in our flat 3/6 in Glasgow, as he kept them in our living room and they seemed to have a complete life of their own. All those wires and cords would have a tendency to completely take over the living room floor, and I don't even know how many times I tripped over them. And accidentally stepping on a guitar pedal is almost up there with stepping on legos.

So when I saw on pintrest that someone had made a guitar pedal board out of IKEA Gorm shelves, I highly encouraged Graeme to make one too. And not only did it turn out looking really awesome, it did an excellent job at keeping those guitar pedals in check. However, this first pedal board was left in Glasgow when Graeme moved over to Norway, so obviously he had to make another one, and this is the improved version. While the first one worked great, this one looks even neater as it has a plank at each end hiding the cords pretty much completely. This is how he did it:

Step 1: Gather your supplies. You will need a saw, hammer, screwdriver and screws, velcro tape, floor protectors, and of a set of GORM shelves from IKEA. This set should come with two shelves, and you'll be using one and parts of the other. If you're planning on painting or staining the pedal board, you'll also need paint and a paintbrush (duh). Graeme used a nice black stain.

Step 2: Take apart one of the shelves. You'll be using two of the top planks: one as is and the other cut in two. So for the second plank, draw a line down the middle and saw so that you have two thinner planks (see image below).

Step 3: Saw away part of the end bits as below. Graeme just used a regular saw to do this, but it was a little fiddly. This step is technically optional, but it means your end planks will fit in neatly and won't stick out (as much), and you'll end up with a neater finish.

Step 4: Screw the full plank to the back of the board, and the half plank to the front. If you cut away part of the end bits in step 3, these should slide in quite nicely.

Step 5: Paint or stain. Leave to dry before going to the next step.

Step 6: Attach the velcro tape to the board pedals, and remove the rubber feet from the pedals if they have any. If you're keeping it on floors you don't want to mark, it's a good idea to also add floor protectors. Your guitar pedals will fit neatly on top of the board, while the cords and wires will be hidden inside. Now grab your guitar and start making some noise!